Beauty and the Beast
by Fragile-Strength
Summary: No way would someone like Belle fall in love with something like the Beast. skate


a _sa_**wye_r _**_& ka_**_te_** story

_AN - - - So, I'm sitting here, right? And for reasons I don't totally understand, I'm singing the 'Beauty and the Beast' theme song right? So, out of nowhere, this plot  
bunny comes up and viciously **whacks **me over the head and then I'm like, 'ohhh! awww! what a cute idea!' and there you have it._

_Actually, this fic is ridiculously old. It's been sitting around, unworked in my documents folder for ages. All I had to do was get it out, finish the end and rework the beginning._

_I love, love, love Bailey. I hate the ending. For the record, this is AU. It's set God-only-knows-when, but sometime in the future, around eight years later (that's roughly how old Bailey is). It's assuming they make a life for themselves on the island. Sawyer and Kate are together, as are Jack and Juliet._

_Disclaimer; If I owned it, Sawyer would've stayed in that damn helicopter and pushed Jack out. I don't own Disney/Beauty and the Beast, either. I do, however, own Bailey Lou Ford. Please don't steal her, but if you want to use her (I doubt that) PM me and we'll talk about it._

_Review, please!_

* * *

"Tale as old as time, song as old as rhyme, Beauty and the Beast." finished Mrs. Potts as she turned back to her little tea-cup son, Chip and the beautiful, dancing couple that was Belle and the Beast. Immediately, Bailey Lou Ford struggled out of the beanbag she had been sprawled in and onto her feet to her feet, crossed her arms over her tiny chest and turned away from the set.

"What's wrong, babe?" Sawyer asked, not looking up from his copy of 'Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows'.

"This movie don't make any sense! Beauty and the Beast as a couple aren't believable," the seven year-old insisted, gnawing on her bottom lip as she tried to think her way through the conundrum.

Sawyer chuckled, low in his throat. "Doll, it's a Disney movie. It ain't 'sposed to make sense. And for that matter, it's a love story. Love stories don't make sense."

Bailey glowered at her father in a way that rivaled her mother's. "Don't be silly, Daddy. I-"

"Me, silly? Naw!" Sawyer cut her off.

"As I was saying," Bailey growled, and Sawyer laughed again. "It still needs to be realistic! Or else people ain't gonna like it, right? It needs to be something people can relate to. No way would someone like Belle fall in love with something like the Beast."

Sawyer frowned, finally closing his book (right in the middle of Ron yelling for Hermione in Malfoy Manor, nonetheless) and his eyes darkened as he looked at his daughter for the first time in the conversation. "That's what I thought too, sugar."

"Thought?" Bailey accused, wildly annoyed, now. "Whatcha mean, thought? I am right! I was right! I will always be right!"

"Tell that to your mama," Sawyer hissed, creasing the page he was on, slamming his book shut, and storming from the room.

Bailey gaped after him and flinched when she heard him slam his bedroom door shut.

- - - -

"Sawyer?" Kate said, looking up from the dishes she was washing in the kitchen sink. "James?" She heard an angry grunt, and, with a sigh, wiped her hands clean of the suds and trailed after him.

She opened the door and was nearly run over as he angrily paced the room, back and forth past the door. "What's wrong?" she asked, concerned.

"Ask that damn girl of yours," he snarled, making a particularly sharp turn at their bed.

"Of ours," she corrected automatically, and the glare he gave her showed he was in no mood for it. She heaved a sigh and wiped a bubble of soap she'd missed off into her hair as she sat on their bed. "Okay, now, James. C'mon, sit down," she patted the spot beside her, "and tell me what's wrong, okay? Calmly and adult-ly, too. I expect that much of you, at least."

Glowering at her (and the window, and the bed, and anything else that crossed his line of sight), he plopped down onto the bed beside her, propelling her into the air a bit. She giggled, but he turned disgustedly away, and she hurried to stifle it. "Come on, now," she insisted.

"Lou was watchin' Beauty and the Beast and she…"

"Don't tell me you've been seriously insulted by a six year old and a Disney movie?" Kate snickered, unable to refrain herself. He promptly ignored her until she apologized.

"As I was sayin', she was watchin' it an' the mama teapot-"

"Mrs. Potts."

"Yeah, Mrs. Potts, whatever. Anyway, Mrs. Potts finishes singin' her lil' song while the girl and the Beast are dancin' an' Lou said that-"

Kate didn't need for him to finish. She wrapped her pseudo husband (because you can't exactly get married on an island, can you?) up in her arms and cut him off with her lips. She quietly crawled over to sit on his lap after they had finally broken apart.

"An' Lou said that it wasn't possible. How could somebody as pretty, as perfect as the lady-"

"Belle."

"Wha'ever, Kate. As perfect as Belle could ever fall in love with someth' as horrible, as evil, as the Beast. And… Gawd, Kate, she's right! She's right, she's right, she's right! You can't love me!" He moaned softly, running one hand through his hair and shifting under her weight. She sighed and wound her arms around his neck, nestling her head against the groove of his neck and shoulder.

"Oh God, James, not this again," she breathed, warm on his neck and once more he shifted uncomfortably. He couldn't hold back and rested his hands on her hips; pulling her flush against his body. She didn't resist.

"And it's Jack, isn't it?" He continued, this time with considerably less fire, wrapping on arm all the way around behind her back and using the other to brush the hair away from her face. "It's Jack and it's always been Jack, hasn't it? I should'a known better then to try, shouldn't I? Oh Gawd, Kate, you know he'd drop Juliet in a heartbeat for ya, he'd love ya, he'd treat ya right, and he'd certainly be a better daddy to Lou. Why don't ya just-"

"Do you want me to go?"

These words stopped him in his tracks. She'd been sputtering him and trying to stop him the whole time, loudly pushing her words and her hands, but only this soft, whispered sentence made his blood freeze.

"No," he growled, suddenly fierce. "But if it's what's best for you, then I'll damn well make you go."

"You're what's best for me, James," Kate murmured, with the air of someone who had done this a hundred times over. Nonetheless, she reached up and delicately brushed a chunk of golden hair out of his face. "And I'm staying. I love you, James, and I will always love you. It will always be you." She shrugged. "Besides, I never went for sissy boys," she said, coaxing a grin and then - as he mulled it over a bit - a laugh out of him. "Seriously, James. I would never, ever leave you for Jack. God, no. I don't even want to go over all the ways your better," she cooed, having become used to pumping his ego. And besides, all of it was true. "And for that matter? He couldn't treat me better, or love me more, or please me more," he groaned, and she grinned, "or be a better daddy to Bailey than you are. Alright? Bailey, however, is right."

She got just the reaction she expected, but had been hoping to subdue. He frowned, and went to push her off her lap, but he stopped him with a hand to his chest. "James. Look at me." Grudgingly, he did. "Bailey is right. Beauty and the Beast - that could never happen. But that isn't us. You gotta understand, James - I'll never be as perfect as Belle, and you'll never be as horrible as the Beast."

_--Cayenne_


End file.
